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ED 446 835 PS 028 956
AUTHOR Bryant, Donna; Peisner-Feinberg, Ellen; Miller-Johnson,Shari
TITLE Head Start Parents' Roles in the Educational Lives of TheirChildren.
PUB DATE 2000-04-28NOTE 14p.; Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the
American Educational Research Association (New Orleans, LA,April 24-28, 2000).
PUB TYPE Reports Research (143) Speeches /Meeting. Papers (150)
EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Academic Achievement; Behavior Problems; Emergent Literacy;
Family Environment; Interpersonal Competence; Models;Numeracy; *Parent Participation; *Parent Role; *ParentSchool Relationship; Parent Student Relationship; *Parents;Parents as Teachers; Predictor Variables; *PreschoolChildren; Preschool Education
IDENTIFIERS *Project Head Start
ABSTRACTNoting that parent involvement in their children's education
is a crucial contributor to children's achievement, this study investigatedthe relations among family factors, parental involvement in children'slearning activities within and outside of Head Start, and children's outcomesrelated to literacy, numeracy, social skills, and behavior problems. Datawere collected by means of Fall and Spring parent interviews, teacher ratingsof children's social skills and problem behaviors, and administration of theWoodcock Johnson Math and Letter-Word ID subscales. The findings indicatedthat in the Fall, parents who were most involved with their children inactivities at home and in the community were more likely to include motherswith higher levels of education. Larger families tended to have lessinvolvement in Head Start than smaller families. The level of Fall homeactivities was highly significantly related to Spring home activities.Parents' participation in Head Start activities over the course of the yearwas a significant predictor of home activities with the child in the Spring.There were no significant family demographic or activity predictors of thepre-math outcome. Family size and income were significant predictors of theliteracy outcome. A family's involvement in activities with their child athome and in the community was significantly positively related to Letter-WordID. Parent involvement in Head Start activities did not contribute to thecognitive development outcomes. Parents who reported more Head Startinvolvement in activities that included their child had children whomteachers rated more highly on social skills. (KB)
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Head Start Parents' Roles in the Educational Lives of Their Children 0 Minor changes have been made toimprove reproduction quality.
Donna Bryant, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, and Shari Miller-JohnsonNC Head Start Quality Research Center
FPG Child Development Center, UNC-CHPresented at AERA, New Orleans, April 28, 2000
Points of view or opinions stated in thisdocument do not necessarily representofficial OERI position or policy.
Parental involvement in their children's education is a crucial contributor to
children's achievement (Slaughter-Defoe, Nakagawa, Takanishi, & Johnson, 1990).
Accordingly, parental involvement is one of the four required cornerstones of Head
Start. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relations among family
factors, parental involvement in children's learning activities within Head Start and
outside of Head Start, and children's outcomes.
This paper presents results answering three main research questions:
1. What family factors are related to parents' activities with their child at home and
parents' activities within Head Start?
2. Does participating in Head Start parent involvement activities lead to greater
involvement with the child at home?
3. Are family activities at home or parent activities within Head Start related to
children's cognitive and social development?
The Model (overhead)
Family/child characteristicsChild genderFamily sizeFamily incomeMother educ.
Family ActivitiesFall home act. w/child
Parent invl. in Head StartSpring home act. w/child
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Child OutcomesLiteracyNumeracySocial skillsBehavior problems
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2
Measures (overhead)
Fall and spring parent interviewsHome activities with child (NHES questions)Parent participation in Head Start (spring only)
Spring teacher ratings of children on SSRSSocial Skills and Problem Behaviors
Spring child assessments, Woodcock JohnsonMath and Letter-Word ID subscales
The fall and spring parent interviews included demographic questions and
questions about the parents' involvement with their child in activities around the
home and out in the community. These question were taken from the National
Household Educational Survey weekly and monthly activity questions, and include
items like: In the past week, have you or someone in your family told child a
story, taught him letters, words or numbers, played with toys or games indoors, etc.
If so, how many times? In the past month, have you or someone in your family
done the following things with the child: visited a library? Gone to a movie?
Visited an art gallery, museum or historical site? If so, how many times? The
score on this measure is just the total of all Yeses to the items. We did not weight
them for frequency for these analyses.
The parent interview in the spring also included questions about the parent's
participation in Head Start activities, questions such as "Since the beginning of this
Head start year, how often have you volunteered 9or helped out in your child's
classroom? Observed in the child's classroom for at least 30 minutes? Helped
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with field trips or other special events? Attended parent-teacher conferences?
Participated in Policy Council or other Head Start planning groups?
To account for differences between sites in numbers of missing items, this measure
is a mean score ranging from 1-3 with 1 being no participation and 3 being
frequent participation (3 or more times in each activity).
Children's social skills were rated by their Head Start teacher in the spring
using the Social Skills Rating Scale. This measure results in 2 scores, the Social
Skills subscale and the Problem Behaviors subscale, both standardized by gender.
The spring child assessments included the administration of the Woodcock
Johnson Math and Letter-Word ID subscales which result in age standardized
scores with a mean of 100.
Means and SDs (overhead)
N Mean SDFall activities (wk/mo) 521 6.03 2.60Spring activities (wk/mo) 165 5.57 2.80Parent inv. in Head Start 166 1.85 .39WJ Letter-word ID 247 93.25 12.25WJ Applied probs 249 93.81 15.74SSRS Social skills 184 100.15 15.04SSRS Behavior probs 183 102.91 13.51
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1. What family factors are related to parents' activities with their child at home and parents'activities within Head Start? (overhead)
OutcomeHome Activities w/child
Parent involvement in HSChild-focus subsetNon-child-focus subset
Significant predictorsMother's education* * * (+)Being a GSU subject**** (-)
Overall model n.s.Overall model****; Family size** (-)Overall model***; Family size* (-)
This first question was tested with 2 regressions using Child Gender, Family size, Family
Income, and Maternal Education as predictors. In the fall of their Head Start year, parents who
were most involved with their children in activities at home and in the community (the Home
Activities measure) were more likely to have mothers with higher levels of education. Other
family demographic variables were not related to the frequency of Family Activities, but being a
participant from the GSU sites was (warmer weather down south leads to more activities?)
None of these same family factors were significantly related to Parent Involvement in
Head Start. However, when this variable is split into its 2 main factors--parent involvement in
activities with the child (classroom visits, field trips, for example) and parent involvement in
activities that don't involve the child (meetings, conferences, etc.) the overall model was
significant and in both cases Family Size was significantly related to less involvement in Head
Start.
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2. Does participating in Head Start parent involvement activities lead to greater involvementwith the child at home? (overhead)
Outcome: Home Activities with Child in the Spring
Variables in the model: Family SizeFamily IncomeMother's Educ.Fall Home Activities****Head Start Activities* * *
The second question was "Does participating in Head Start parent involvement activities related
to greater involvement with the child at home?"
The analysis for this question involved predicting the level of Home Activities with the Child in
the Spring, taking into account Family Size, Family Income, Mother's Education and the level of
Home Activities in the Fall. None of the family factors were significant, but the level of Fall
Home Activities was highly significantly related to Spring Home Activities. Importantly, over
and above this factor, the parents' participation in Head Start activities over the course of the year
was indeed a significant predictor of Home Activities with Child in the Spring.
SEE FIGURE 1
6
3. Are family activities at home or parent activities within Head Start related to children'scognitive development? (overhead)
Outcome: Letter-word ID (Woodcock Johnson)
Variables in the model: Child GenderFamily Size*** (-)Family Income** (+)Mother's Educ.Spring Home Activities* (+)Head Start Activities
The third question involves the relationship between parent involvement in activities with the
child at home and parent involvement within Head Start as they relate to children's cognitive and
social development at the end of their Head Start year. We broke this into 2 questions, one for
cognitive development and one for social behavior. For cognitive development, there were no
significant family demographic or activity predictors of the pre-math outcome, but the model for
the literacy outcome--Letter Word ID - -was significant. Family size and income were significant
predictors of this literacy outcome, but over and above them, a family's involvement in activities
with their child at home and in the community was significantly positively related to Letter-
Word ID. See Figure 2.
Parent involvement in Head Start activities did not contribute to this outcome.
7
3b. Does parent involvement within Head Start relate to children's social development? (overhead)
Outcome: Social Skills Scale of SSRS
Variables in the model: Family SizeFamily Income*HS Parent Involvement--Child-Focused*HS Parent Involvement--Non-Child-Focused
Although parent involvement in Head Start did not contribute to the literacy outcome measure, it
did contribute to the teachers more positive view of the child's social skills. Parents who reported more
Head Start involvement in activities that included their child (classroom volunteering, field trips, etc.) had
children whom teachers rated more highly on Social Skills. (Also see Figure 3.) Parent involvement in
meetings, conferences, and other non-child-related Head Start activities was not predictive.
Conclusions
Parents with greater participation in Head Start activities were more likely to participate in other
family and community activities that are important for children's learning. These findings suggest that to
the extent Head Start can promote greater parent involvement within the program, parents might also
become more involved with their children outside of the program. Given the Family Size finding (that
larger families tend to participate less), Head Start programs might try to have more activities that involve
all family members. Finally, although they tend to be related to different types of child outcomes, parents'
participation with their child in home and community activities and parents' participation in Head Start
activities--particularly those that happen within the classroom or with the class (including child and
teacher)--seem to be important for their children's social and cognitive development.
REFERENCE:
Slaughter-Defoe, D., Nakagawa, K., Takanishi, R., & Johnson, D.J. (1990). Toward cultural/ecologicalperspectives on schooling and achievement in African- and Asian-American children. ChildDevelopment, 61, 363-383.
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Title: Head Start Parents' Roles in the Educational Lives of their Children
Author(s): Donna Bryant, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, and Shari Miller-Johnson
Corporate Source: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Publication Date:
April 2000
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